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NEW HAVEN — At first, the 17-year-old football player's communication with the Madison high school teacher seemed harmless. They talked about current events, gym workouts and his senior quote in the yearbook. So when the teacher asked if she could follow him on the photo-sharing app Instagram, the teen consented. "Because she was the 'cool' teacher," the teenager told police, according to an arrest warrant affidavit released Tuesday outlining the criminal charges against Allison Marchese, 37, an English teacher at Daniel Hand High School. But by Thanksgiving 2014, according to the affidavit, the teen started getting Instagram messages that he described as...

Related "Blackmail and Extortion" Articles

NEW HAVEN — At first, the 17-year-old football player's communication with the Madison high school teacher seemed harmless.
They talked about current events, gym workouts and his senior quote in the yearbook. So when the teacher asked if she could follow...

MANCHESTER — A Windsor man who was accused last year of trying to extort money from a convicted sex offender pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and received a suspended sentence.
Thomas DeFranzo pleaded guilty to second-degree breach of peace in...

HARTFORD — Not many people would consider a 10-year prison sentence a solid career move. But William P. Grasso wasn't like most people.
In 1968 he was running dice games and hustling street loans for Ralph "Whitey" Tropiano, a mafia soldier...

Obviously Hamid Karzai's been smoking the sap from some of those poppies that grow so freely in Afghanistan. This guy is incredible. To accuse the United States of colluding with the Taliban just to prolong the war is beyond understanding. He's as crazy...

A trial that many feared would never take place opened in a packed federal courtroom Wednesday when a prosecutor gave a cold-blooded recitation of what he called decades of terror inflicted on the city by its most notorious crime boss, James...

A former senior Massachusetts state police officer testified Thursday that some local FBI agents were so consumed with protecting James "Whitey" Bulger that they repeatedly sabotaged state police investigations and even threatened the careers of...

James "Whitey" Bulger, whose racketeering trial continues to be the best show in town, finally flashed a smile from his seat at the defense table Friday, although it was unclear from the context whether Bulger found one of his accusers amusing...

Confessed 20-time killer John Martorano left no doubt during his testimony against James "Whitey" Bulger Monday that he was settling a score for the decision made decades ago by Bulger and another former partner, Stephen "The Rifleman"...

The Big Show, as some call it, is on in Boston. That is the trial of 83-year-old mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, who is accused of murder, racketeering, extortion and other charges.
Mr. Bulger has tried to portray himself as a good bad guy,...

VERNON — The former chief of the Coventry Volunteer Association, previously charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, was arrested again Friday on charges of attempting to tamper with a witness and attempting to violate a protective order.
...

If there's an iron rule in economics, it is Stein's Law (named after Herb, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers): "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."
Detroit, for example, can no longer go on borrowing, spending,...

Former Mayor Eddie Perez's appellate case will not be heard by a judge until at least February, an appellate court clerk said Tuesday.Although the case was put on a court docket that reads "court dates are expected to be Jan. 2 to 23," the clerk...

Attorneys for former Mayor Eddie A. Perez on Friday filed what is expected to be their final brief in the mayor's appeal of his criminal convictions before the case goes before a judge.The attorneys repeated their argument that Perez's two criminal...

Police are investigating whether a childhood friend of major league pitcher Carl Pavano tried to extort money from him by threatening to publicize details of their relationship while attending Southington High School. The...

A hearing on an appeal from former Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez has been scheduled for January.Perez's appeal to Appellate Court is expected to be heard sometime between Jan. 2 and 23, according to a court docket listing cases for next month. An exact...

Former Mayor Eddie Perez's appeal of his June 2010 convictions on bribery and other charges is scheduled for Feb. 19 at 10 a.m., according to an appellate court clerk.Perez, 54, will appear in front of a three-judge panel, according to Rhonda...

More than two years after former Mayor Eddie A. Perez was convicted of five felony corruption charges and sentenced to three years in prison, his lawyers will have a chance Tuesday to make their case for why those convictions should be thrown out.
Perez,...

Former Mayor Eddie A. Perez's lawyer reiterated his argument Tuesday that Perez's bribery and extortion cases should not have been combined, and that as a result the jury was unfairly prejudiced against Perez.
Evidence from both cases was shown to the...

John T. Fiorillo is the million-dollar marshal.
Boosted by his ties to the state's two major foreclosure firms, Fiorillo, a Hartford County marshal, reported a net income of more than $1 million for delivering court papers in 2008, according to...

The judge investigating allegations of corruption in the administration of Mayor Eddie A. Perez has found sufficient evidence that another person committed two crimes, according to a letter filed with the courts Tuesday.
The letter was from attorney John...